


Atonement

by detectivejigsaw



Series: Old Man Angst [9]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, Apologies, Gen, Guilty Ford Pines, Hurt/Comfort (sort of), Post-Weirdmageddon, Sea Grunks (mentioned), Tate being a good son, drabble-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:07:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24578035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/detectivejigsaw/pseuds/detectivejigsaw
Summary: During their return to Gravity Falls, Ford pays a visit to his old friend-and has a little something to say to his son.
Relationships: Fiddleford H. McGucket & Ford Pines, Fiddleford H. McGucket & Tate McGucket, Tate McGucket & Ford Pines
Series: Old Man Angst [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1433122
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58





	Atonement

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't think of a better title, so I decided to go with this one and hope it works until or unless I come up with something better.

Knock, knock, knock.

Ford stood outside the front door of the former Northwest Mansion, lowering his hand back down to shove it uncomfortably into his pocket and wait patiently for someone to answer.

They’d been back in Gravity Falls for almost a full day now, after months of exploring the Arctic Ocean, but had come back to spend a fresh summer with their niece and nephew. Stan was down at the Shack, admiring Soos’s many attractions and preparing for Dipper and Mabel’s imminent arrival; Ford had taken the opportunity to travel to this part of town and see how his old friend McGucket was doing, and just catch up.

Finally his patience was rewarded by the sound of footsteps in the hallway, and the door opened to reveal Tate.

The younger man’s eyes remained as hidden under his hat as ever, so his voice was the only evidence of his surprise. “Dr. Pines?”

“Yes, hello.” Ford smiled. “Is Fiddleford here?”

Tate nodded. “Yup. He’s workin’ in the basement, but he oughta be comin’ up for lunch soon if you wanna wait.”

“All right.” Ford also wouldn’t have minded going down to see if Fiddleford needed assistance, but he just followed Tate inside, remembering to wipe his boots on the mat first.

* * *

The house looked radically different from the last time he’d entered it, over thirty years ago; there was a conspicuous absence of taxidermy or suits of armor or other extravagant manifestations of wealth, replaced by an abundance of more...unorthodox decorations. Several half- or fully-constructed robots lined the walls, some of whom appeared to have possums or raccoons or other forest creatures inhabiting them. Several large hound dogs were sprawled lazily at the foot of the stairs, drooling all over the fancy red carpet and only moving to occasionally scratch themselves or roll over. Tate led him to the dining room, which had an enormous swordfish hanging on the wall. Ford assumed it had been caught during a trip to the sea, since the lake was freshwater; on the other hand, almost anything was possible in Gravity Falls.

The size of the dining room implied that it used to contain an enormous table that would have stretched from one corner of the room to the other; now, however, there was a table just big enough for a small group of people, and another half-constructed robot that looked a little like a giant pepper pot.

“Dad’s been tryna build a robo-butler ta help out here and in the kitchen,” Tate said by way of explanation. “It’s a work in progress.” He gestured for Ford to have a seat, while flopping into one of his own.

There was a moment of awkward silence between them. Then Ford finally cleared his throat and asked, “...How’s he doing?”

Tate tilted his head. “All right. He’s gettin’ better all the time. Still has moments when he gets a mite confused about stuff, but your niece made him a scrapbook that helps.”

His voice had its usual stoic tone, so it was hard to tell if there was any reproach to it; Ford cringed anyway.

Fiddleford had made it clear that as far as he was concerned, all was forgiven regarding him (or at least his arrogant insistence on building the portal and not having more consideration for his friend’s nerves) being one of the catalysts that had driven him insane. But that didn’t change the fact that Ford had caused him to lose thirty years that should have been happily spent with his family. Of course, Tate’s behavior towards his father had been far from perfect, he could always have tried harder to get him help, or at least given him a home that wasn’t the dump, but the fact remained that they never would have been driven apart in the first place if Ford hadn’t started it all.

Part of him wondered if the younger man resented him for it.

“Tate?”

Tate’s head tilted upwards from the  _ Stoic Monthly _ magazine he had picked up and started to flip through; again, Ford could only assume he was looking directly at him.

He cleared his throat. “I-I know it’s ridiculously too late for me to be saying it. But-” too late to back out now- “I’m sorry for taking your father from you.”

Maybe it was his imagination, but it looked like Tate’s hands clenched a little around the edges of the magazine.

“I should have...done a lot of things differently. And I’m sure it must have been hard for you.”

“Yup.”

His stomach clenched at the flat, blunt reply. “But if there’s anything I can do…”

Doubtful, since how exactly did you fix a man’s family falling apart because you’d been careless and selfish thirty years ago? Ford let the question hang in the air anyway.

An even longer silence sat between them; Ford was uncomfortable and annoyed to realize that he was actually starting to sweat a little. Just when he thought Tate wasn’t going to answer him at all, he said, “Just don’t do it again, yeah? We’ve spent more’n enough time bein’ apart.”

Ford swallowed. “I will not. You have my word.”

Tate nodded and went back to the magazine. “Good.”

And at that moment, they both heard the sound of Fiddleford’s voice calling, “Tater-tot? Ya home?”

A second later he appeared in the doorway, and beamed when he saw both of them.

“Well,  _ howdy _ , Stanford! Long time no see!”

**Author's Note:**

> I really do feel like this is something that hasn't been directly addressed by the fandom much. I mean, Tate was just a little kid when Fidds came to Gravity Falls; I can't imagine what that must have been like. Maybe it explains why he's Mr. Stoic all the time.
> 
> Hopefully you enjoyed.


End file.
